#It is a very good book

[minweber]

My favorite little thing about "Assassinorum: Kingmaker" has to be the amount of effort that Robert Rath has clearly put into an organic appearance of Green Knight at the climax of his knights story, and the corresponding amount of restraint that he has shown by never letting the words "green" and "knight" appear next to each other all throughout it, despite a very literal green knight being a rather important part of the whole thing.

[vrtlkm]

OC Character Profile

Name: Laline

Species: Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk Moth

Gender: Female

   As you can tell from the species name, Laline is a bee mimic. She came to the kingdom of Hollownest in hopes of making her fortune in trading, as she heard the market in Dirtmouth was beginning to become profitable once again. 

   Though her main plan was to sell necessities to the builders and tradesmen rebuilding and restoring Dirtmouth, soon after arriving she found a much more profitable venture. Before arriving, she had heard rumors about the controversy surrounding moths and had already planned to masquerade as a bee. After she got settled in Dirtmouth and went down to explore more of Hollownest, she heard about the Hive. She also heard about the tensions between these two kingdoms and how the Hive very rarely sold any of their excess honey to Hollownest due to how heavily taxed it was. However, this tax would only apply if it came from the Hive directly, a third party seller would be exempt from this. The Hive had attempted this before, but had too many instances of the sellers trying to cheat them or trying to make more profit by watering down the honey. They also found that sales were lower and bugs were not willing to pay as much for honey not sold by a bee due to having less trust in it being authentic.   

   After gaining an audience with Queen Vespa, Laline proposed a contract between her and the Hive for her to sell the honey for them. The license she obtained that allows her to sell in the Kingdom does indicate that she is not a member of the Hive (this was only asked because the bug making her license assumed she was a bee) so she gets around the tax. Queen Vespa was intrigued, as no other potential seller had been willing to enter into a contract and the terms that Laline was proposing were fair. It was agreed by both parties that there would be a month trial period before the contract would be finalized a signed, but this ended up occurring after two weeks. Laline is a brilliant trader and she is one of those rare people who can haggle fiercely without leaving behind any hard feelings. In her hometown, it was often said that she could sell a bug their own shadow and they would leave happily, feeling as though they made an excellent deal. 

   Queen Vespa and a few other members of the Hive are aware that Laline is actually a moth. She was very upfront with Vespa about this. Vespa has no problem with Laline allowing other bugs to think she is a bee. The Hive has never had any issues with the moth tribe themselves and Laline looking like a bee improves their honey profits. Also, Vespa does find some humor in the idea of pulling one over on those stuck up aristocrats in charge of the Hollownest trade markets as well as the Pale King.   

   Laline is a very charismatic and friendly bug. She has many acquaintances and friends, though has very few close, intimate friends. This, of course, is mostly due to her current deception. She is aware of moth culture and was raised in its practices. Before coming to Hollownest, she knew more than the average bug about bee culture, but is learning even more due to her relationship with the hive. She quite likes her current life in Hollownest, though she does find it annoying how often she needs to explain to bugs that there are bee species that live independently and never become members of hives.    

Below is a picture of the bug I based her off of:

[ajaxgb]

Okay no I need to talk about the book version of Howl's Moving Castle. I love the movie but the book has such a different vibe and you, yes you, should read it.

Movie Howl is a soulful and quiet. Book Howl is a drama queen and Causing Problems and has a long string of jilted exes and couldn't shut up if you paid him.

Sophie and Howl drive each other up the wall at the beginning and it's really funny. Sophie and Howl are (despite themselves) very much in love by the end and they still drive each other up the wall and it's even funnier.

In the movie, Howl has been ordered by the king to participate in The War, and Howl is avoiding it because he is a brave conscientious objector. In the book, Howl has been ordered by the king to rescue his lost brother from the Witch of the Wastes, and Howl is avoiding it by any means necessary because he is a cowardly weasel who wants to stay as far from the Witch as possible.

In the movie, the Witch cursed Sophie because she was jealous about Howl speaking to Sophie for five minutes. In the book, the Witch cursed Sophie because Sophie had been doing surprisingly powerful magic for years without knowing it and it was actually starting to cut into the Witch's plans. (Sophie does not discover any of this until nearly the end of the book, but the reader can start to pick it up much earlier and the way Sophie's magic works is pretty darn cool.)

In the movie, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens, but this is implied to be nothing but nasty fearmongering. In the book, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens because Howl started the rumor so people would stop asking him to do wizard junk all the time.

The book lightly parodies a couple of tropes from Western fairy tales. In particular Sophie has internalized that, as the eldest of three sisters, her "destiny" is to fail so that her younger sisters will look cooler when they succeed, which is why she's so resigned to the hat shop at the beginning. (Sidebar: Sophie's sisters come up much more in the book and they're great.) There's also a really funny bit where Sophie attempts to operate a pair of seven-league boots.

In the movie, the fourth and final location that the magic door connects to is some sort of black void / mindscape / time portal dealy. In the book the fourth location is Wales, in the UK, on Earth, so that Howl can visit his family, because from Howl's perspective this is an isekai story.

[elodieunderglass]

hi. what do you mean

[egophiliac]

still ruminating over Lost In the Book With Spooky Skeletons Part 1, so here's a selection of some of my favorite little bits! (...some more loosely paraphrased than others) (I just feel like Idia has no room to criticize in general, okay)

anyway, I'm sure we're just going to have a fun time celebrating Halloween and nothing bad is going to happen whatsoever! :)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

HOT, SINGLE, UNSTUDIED SPONGES. 3000 NAUTICAL MILES AWAY. Come sail the distance and read Tiger Tiger!

[obsob]

to be loved is to be held!!! print

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm re-reading the Discworld series for reasons, and honestly the most relatable part of reading these as an adult is how many of the protagonists start out being tired, used to their little routine and vaguely disgruntled by the interruption of the Plot. Sam Vimes wants to lie drunk in a gutter and absolutely doesn't want to be arresting dragons. Rincewind is yanked into every situation he's ever encountered, though he'd much rather be lying in a gutter too. (Minus the alcohol. Plus regretting everything he's ever done said witnessed or even heard about fourth-hand in his whole life.) Granny Weatherwax is deeply suspicious of foreign parts and that includes the next town over; Nanny has leaned into the armor of "nothing ever happens to jolly grannies who terrorize their daughters-in-law and make Saucy Jokes"

Only the young people don't seem to have picked up on this---and that's fortunate, because someone has to run around making things happen, if only so Vimes and Granny and Rincewind have a reason to get up (complaining bitterly the whole time) and put it all to rights. Without Carrot, Margrat, Eric, etc. these characters don't have that reason; they're likely to stay in the metaphorical gutter and keep wondering where it all went wrong or why anything has to change.

............well, that's not quite true. You get the sense that Vetinari knows how much certain people hate the Plot. And as the person sitting behind the metaphorical lighting board of Ankh-Morpork, he takes no small pleasure in forcing the Plot-haters specifically to stand up, and say some lines.

[pikatik]

I just like drawing them talking

(Long haired Aziraphale again :D)

[doctormori]

I love this book to death, so here's some things I noticed <3

[chalkrub]

reminiscing about childhood books after that ask - all due respect to cool sleek movie toothless....but to me, he will always be a mean little gremlin

[noxcheshire]

Back again with Danny being adopted by other batfam members.

But this time I thought of the absolute comedy of Damian, tiny squirt and five apples tall, deciding that he is now a father to a grown ass teenage Danny.

It was an accident and had never been his intention to adopt another being.

But it had been placed into Damian’s head that in order to be a potential Batman he had to have his own Robin. And the only way to have his own Robin was to have a child, similar to the way that Father would pick up the various children and teenagers amongst them.

Damain had a very specific list of requirements for his potential child-Robin. Danny did not meet any of those requirements, and yet here Damian was having forged papers for the now Daniel Al Ghul-Wayne, and beginning the treacherous affair of introducing his son to the family.

Danny twisted his new shirt sleeve with a frown. It was a nice green silk that complimented the little green that resided in his son’s eyes. Damian wished to bring out the many carefully crafted features of Danny that could match to Damian. Having his eyes pop, wild hair brushed and losing the battle to nervous hands, would have to do.

At least until Damian taught Danny his mother tongue and began the care of his culture and soon to be heritage.

[beaulesbian]

I was shelving the books by the first letter of the first sentence. - Good Omens, 2x02

"It was a nice day. All the days had been nice. There had been rather more than seven of them so far, and rain hadn't been invented yet. But clouds massing east of Eden suggested that the first thunderstorm was on its way, and it was going to be a big one." - Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

[patolemus]

It’s very humbling when you’re reading a book —part of a trilogy, very acclaimed— and the only thing you can think of is ‘the fanfic I read the other day was better’

[egophiliac]

crossing my fingers and wishing upon every star that chapter 10 finally brings us the tweel cards 🤞🤞